By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 24 -- The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers' yearly estimate of crude oil and natural gas reserves revealed that Canadian oil sands reserves rose substantially in 2002. "[Canadian] companies replaced 162% of their production to push remaining oil sands reserves to 6.9 billion bbl," CAPP reported.
Oil sands production reached 268 million bbl in Canada in 2002 compared with reserve additions of 434 million bbl at yearend 2001, CAPP said.
"The ongoing development of Canada's oil sands plays an important role in the industry. Oil sands accounted for just over half of the gross additions to Canada's crude oil and equivalent reserves in 2002," said John Dielwart, CAPP board chairman. "Of the $24.7 billion [(Can.)] our industry invested in Canada in 2002, $6.7 billion was invested in oil sands projects," he said.
Conventional oil reserves
Conventional Canadian crude reserves, meanwhile, declined during 2002, reaching 370 million bbl in 2002, compared with 535 million bbl of crude produced a year earlier, resulting in a conventional crude replacement rate of 69%. "Overall, gross additions of crude oil and equivalent in Canada replaced 95% of oil sands, conventional crude oil, and pentanes production in 2002," CAPP reported
Among conventional resources, activity continued to migrate toward drilling for natural gas, CAPP noted. "Gas targets accounted for 68% of successful wells in 2002 with the focus primarily on shallow gas pools. New reserve additions of 5.3 tcf could not offset production of 6.4 tcf—resulting in a replacement rate of 84%," CAPP said.
CAPP has compiled Canadian oil reserves since 1951 and natural gas reserves since 1955. Estimates are based on a survey of operators of major pools and estimates from provincial governments and regulatory agencies for small pools.